Photo of collection object Décontractée
Bourgeois, Louise. Décontractée, 1990. Pink marble and steel base, 28 1/2 x 36 x 23 in. (72.4 x 91.4 x 58.4 cm) with steel supports: 1132 lb. (513.47kg). Purchased with funds given by Harry Kahn, Mrs. Carl L.Selden, the David H. Cogan Foundation, Inc., Contemporary Art Council, gift of Edward A. Bragaline, by exchange, and Mary Smith Dorward Fund, 1994.124a-c. © artist or artist's estate.

Décontractée

1990

Louise Bourgeois

French-American, 1911-2010

Contemporary Art

Throughout her career, Louise Bourgeois created biomorphic abstractions. In her work, fragmented body parts become phantom representations of her memories and experiences, and she often employed roughly finished marble blocks with exquisitely carved figurative elements growing from the stone mass. The psychological and the art historical mix seamlessly in the artist’s carvings. Here, the hard work of chiseling marble renders two recumbent hands, loosely relaxed on a monumental pedestal seemingly constructed for some more heroic purpose. Maintaining her own unheralded legacy for decades, and driven largely by an outcry by women supporters in the art world, Bourgeois had her first museum retrospective in 1982, after more than forty-five years as a practicing artist.
Maker/Artist
Bourgeois, Louise
Classification
Sculpture
Formatted Medium
Pink marble and steel base
Dimensions
28 1/2 x 36 x 23 in. (72.4 x 91.4 x 58.4 cm) with steel supports: 1132 lb. (513.47kg)
Departments
Contemporary Art
Accession Number
1994.124a-c
Credit Line
Purchased with funds given by Harry Kahn, Mrs. Carl L.Selden, the David H. Cogan Foundation, Inc., Contemporary Art Council, gift of Edward A. Bragaline, by exchange, and Mary Smith Dorward Fund
Rights Statement
© artist or artist's estate
Dominant Colors

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